12/17 - Final exam stats

The final turned out well for most, but not all, students.

High score: 100
Low score: 63
Class average: 81.3
A - 8
B - 9
C - 9
D - 5
F - 0 (yay)

12/14 - Estudiar

1. Hard word treasure hunt - students looked through chapter vocab lists to find the hardest words they could find. They posted them on the board and we all went over them.

2. Little computers to do some practice tests. The link to these is posted in the right column on this blog page.

La tarea: ESTUDIAR!

12/13 - Repaso

1. Question word review
2. Go over study sheet from last week - -ar verbs.
3. "Me gusta" review in all forms.
4. Showed students the blog and study links
5. Flipside of workbook has some VERY helpful review pages. They usually include a short explanation of the grammar and then step-by-step activities to practice. Please consider doing some/all of these:

p33 - Infinitives
p34-35 - Negatives (also working with gusta expressions)
p36 - Agree and disagree
p47-48 - Adjectives
p49 - Definite and Indefinite articles
p50 - Sentence structure and word order
p63-64 - subject pronouns
p65-66 - -ar verb conjugation
p77-78 - estar
p79-80 - plurals
You can also do all the pages in between to practice vocabulary!!

La tarea: study for the final on Friday!!

12/10 - review for final, pass back tests

1. Pen pal letters
2. -ar verb and vocab review sheet. If you did not finish it in class, we will go over it on Monday.
3. Go over tests, scores were very low.

La tarea: Study for the final

12/9 - TEST, pen pal letters

1. Test
2. Pen pal letters.

La tarea: Write answers for letters.

12/8 - No test due to late start, review sheet for final, -ar verb battleship

1. Review sheet for final exam handed out and explained.
2. -ar verb Battleship.

EXAM TOMORROW

12/7 - review, TEST TOMORROW

0. Turn in projects.
1. Q&A
2. Review -ar verbs
3. vocab crossword puzzle.

TEST TOMORROW!!!!!!

12/6 - Review, review, review. PROJECT DUE tomorrow!!!!!

1. Review - spelling, numbers, pronouns, "ser", "estar", prepositions.

La tarea: FINISH YOUR CONJUGATION PROJECT!!!

12/3 - work on conjugation project

Students worked on the conjugation project almost the whole hour. I was disappointed with how few people asked me to look over their sentences and boxes so hopefully everyone just had a really great grasp on the assignment.

La tarea: The project is due on Tuesday, but we will NOT have any more class time to do it.

NOTE: Chapter 2B is moved up to Wednesday of next week!!!

12/2 - Verb conjugation review, project assigned.

1. Review of verb conjugations, practice verb endings.
2. Assigned conjugation project, due on Tuesday

La tarea: Bring in your started project to work on in class.

Verb Conjugation Project (52 points) Assigned: 12/2, Due 12/7 (Tuesday)
You will conjugate 14 verbs: ser, estar, 4 -ar, 4 -er, and 4 -ir verbs of your choice. For each verb, you will VERY NEATLY make and fill out a conjugation grid with all pronouns included, and also including the Spanish infinitive and English translation of the infinitive. You will illustrate the verb and write a grammatically correct sentence describing the illustration. Make at least 1 sentence with each subject pronoun from the grid (10). It is best to try to use words you already know, but you may use the glossary at the end of your text or the additional vocab on page 472. DO NOT start with your final copy; you should run all sentences by me before committing them to the final version.
Grading Rubric:
2 points each for correct conjugation (28 pts.)
1 point each for correct sentences with varied subjects (14 pts.)
5 points for turning project in on time
5 points for illustrations that represent the sentences.

Note: if any of the verbs you choose is acting on a person, you must use the personal “a” before naming the person. For example, “Yo beso a mi esposo” or “Ella llama a la profesora,” but “Tú gastas mucho dinero” (no personal “a” is needed because the object is not a person).

12/1 - verb review

1. esponja - plurals/check tarea
2. Q&A - basic questions - review for final
3. Verb conjugation practice ser/estar/-ar verbs, Q&A
4. -er and -ir verb endings
5. Conjugate one -ar, one -er, one -ir verb on back of list passed out in class.

La tarea: MEMORIZE verb endings for -ar, -er, -ir verbs. Finish conjugations if not done.

11/30 - class items, definite vs indefinite articles, plurals

1. check tarea, go over WBpp41, 42, 46
1.5 possessives: no apostrophe in Spanish!!! To say "Dan's book" you have to say "the book of Dan" "El libro de Dan".
2. work with prepositions
3. Class items, name, use indefinite (a, some) articles and definite (the) articles. Make plural

La tarea: list items in your backpack. "Hay un libro, tres plumas y un cuaderno en mi mochila. Tambien hay muchas hojas de paper, ........"

11/29 - get back into Spanish day

1. Discuss how students used Spanish over break.
2. Review classroom items via a few games.
3. Review prepositions
4. Use prepositions. You MUST use the verb "estar" with locations!
5. Textbook: p108, describe the location of students in the pics.

La tarea: Workbook pages 41and 42 ( should be already done, but if not, do it), and page 46.

11/19 - Oral, One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song

1. One Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song - translate the lyrics, watch 2 versions of the song.

2. Orals while the rest of the class makes "Feliz dia de Gracias" cards for their favorite teachers.

La tarea: Try to use Spanish in your real life!!

11/8 - Prepositions

1. review poema
2. discuss use of prepositions, most of the ones in the poem need a "de" after them to compare the relative locations of 2 items/people. For example: La bandera esta cerca de la profesora. or: Juan esta delante de Anita. DO NOT USE DE WITH Sobre, en, aqui, alli.
3. We practiced stating the relative positions of items and people in the class.
4. Game: yesterday, students wrote sentences describing their position in the classroom. Today, I read them aloud and students had to ID who it was.
5. Workbook p42/Orals

La tarea: Workbook p42. ORALS WILL BE PRESENTED TOMORROW!

11/17 - Silent Study Day

Students worked silently the whole hour. The following is homework if not completed in class:

1. p 100 - translate the paragraph that the guy is saying.
2. p.101 - translate 5 sentences
3. p. 102-103 - translate THE WHOLE THING.

If you did the other activities in class, we will go over them tomorrow and you will be prepared.

Hopefully we will have some better behavior tomorrow and we can move on to fun activities again.

Silent Study Day tomorrow - 11/17

Due to unacceptable behavior during and after the quiz, this class will have a silent study day tomorrow. Many students behaved disrespectfully, and I prefer to try to deal with these issues in class. However, I will be writing referrals tomorrow and in the future for this kind of disrespectful and disruptive behavior (not working, hands on other students, using electronics, disobeying my requests). It is not fair to the students who are trying to learn for me to have to constantly ask students to follow the rules and get to work.

I realize that there are respectful and appropriate students in this class and I am sorry they are being punished too. However I think they will appreciate the quiet work atmosphere tomorrow, and hopefully the good future classroom environment. I will be notifying parents of some disrespectful students in the hopes that this may help alleviate the situation as well.

Gracias,
Sra. Phipps

11/16 - prepositions, vocab practice

1. prepositions poem practice. Remember, oral presentation is on Friday!!
2. Vocab practice. We played a game to review vocab, then had a quiz.

La tarea: Workbook p41

11/15 - estar and vocab, quiz tomorrow!

1. Check tarea
2. review estar, do p.44 in workbook to practice
3. Poem - prepositions (see sidebar)
4. Video - prepositions rhyme (NOT the same as ours0
Conjugations Back a much awesomer teacher than I am doing a great video to teach conjugation.

5. Vocab practice - memory game

La tarea: Study vocab list from strip and mi=my, tu=your, de=of/from, Donde=where, hay=there is/there are

11/12 - Plurals and estar

1. (text p110) To make a noun plural, you first need to change the article. el becomes los, la becomes las, un becomes unos, and una becomes unas.
Then, if the noun ends in a vowel, just add on an "s". If the noun ends with a consonant, add "es". Ejemplo: el libro = los libros, la carpeta = las carpetas, el papel = los papeles.

If the noun ends in a "z", when you add the "es" you need to change the "z" to a "c". el lapiz = los lapices.

2. We also went over the ocnjugation of "estar" on page 107 of the text.

3. Students made all their flashcards plural.

La tarea: (maybe finished in class) Workbook pp 40 and 45.

11/10 - -ar verb review, ser/estar, new vocab

1. Esponja - ser/estar
2. pass back quizzes, -ar verb review for retake tomorrow.
3. using flashcards, practice new vocab.

La tarea: study for retake on quiz: pronouns, -ar verb conjugation

BONUS POST - Ser vs. Estar

Ser and estar are taught many different ways. If a student has a method that works for them, they should use it! At our school, the Spanish 2 teachers have agreed that we will offer the same memorization techniques. The standard technique is:

SER:
TOPPNIC
Time
Origin
Possession
Profession
Nationality
Inherent Characteristic

ESTAR:
HELPS
Health
Emotion
Location
Progressive tense
civil Status

When I was in school, SER and ESTAR were taught differently, and I offer this technique to my students as well. I was taught that SER is used for things that are mostly permanent and that cannot be changed or only with tremendous difficulty, and ESTAR is used for things that are mostly temporary (with 2 notable exceptions). I know you can argue these and find all sorts of reasons it doesn't work, but you just have to go with it!

Using the TOPPNIC and HELPS categories to provide examples, you can see how this works:

TIME cannot be changed, it goes on its own merry way
ORIGIN is where you are from, can't change that
PROFESSION is hard to change, requires training, learning curve, whatever.
POSSESSION is hard to change, what's mine is mine
NATIONALITY is hard to change, you'd have to move, take a citizenship test, learn another language, etc.
INHERENT CHARACTERISTIC short of surgery, hard to change. Even though you can color your hair, it still grows out in your natural color. Change can happen very slowly on it's own time, you can't do anything to move it along. As I always like to say, "once an idiot, always an idiot."

HEALTH changes quickly, you get sick you get better.
EMOTION changes very easily, especially in the teen years.
LOCATION is one of the exceptions. In some ways, location is very temporary, I get up and move easily. But estar is also used to locations like Denver is in Colorado. Denver is not going anywhere, but it's a location so it uses estar.
PROGRESSIVE TENSE by definition is changing, it is happening right now but subject to instantaneous change.
CIVIL STATUS is the other exception. This means anything you could get a certificate for the government for: birth (being alive), death (being dead), married, divorced.

I hope that helps! email me with questions

11/9 - -ar verb quiz, ser/estar, new vocab

1. Quiz
2. ser and estar - studied the differences.
3. Start making flashcards for new classroom vocabulary, spanish on one side, pictures on the other.

La tarea: finish making flashcards.

11/8 - -ar verb conjugation and answering questions

1. Esponja - answering questions
2. 2 Oral presentations
3. Workbook - p 34 and 37, work alone then go over together.
Students seem to understand the idea of conjugating verbs, they are just not applying it very well in communication. We will work on this even more.

La tarea: quiz tomorrow (details after this), bring in 32 BLANK slips of paper to make flashcards with. If you are bringing index cards, please cut them in half!!!

The quiz tomorrow is over pronouns and -ar verb conjugation. Any -ar verb is fair game! It will be worth 15 points: 4 for identifying the correct pronoun (ex. You-all = Uds./vosotros, Marcos and Carmen = ellos), 6 for conjugating an -ar verb in all forms (patino, patinas, patina, patinamos, patinais, patinan), and 5 for conjugating verbs for the people specified (Sofia (bailar) = baila, tu y yo (escuchar) = escuchamos). Make sure you know your pronouns and verb endings!!!!

11/5 - Presentaciones orales

1. Oral presentations
2. Finish translating pp76-77, present in class.

La tarea: None!

11/4 - Oral presentations, then start translating pp76-77

1. Oral presentations
2. Translate pp 76-77

La tarea: none

11/3 - -ar verbs, presentation practice

1. Esponja
2. Turn in pen pal letters
3. Prepare for presentations
4. -ar verb game using clickers
5. see grades on common exam.

La tarea: Prepare for oral presentation tomorrow or Friday.

11/2 - Pen pal letter turn in, -ar verb conjugation and use, Oral presentation for Thurs and Fri

1. Esponja - hablar de tus clases
2. Turn in pen pal final letters.
3. Hablar - preguntas personales Act 9 p80, Act 20 p88.
4. Workbook p33 together
5. Verb conjugation practice
6. Assign oral presentation for Thursday and Friday

La tarea: Write your script, start practicing saying it.

Presentación Oral – jueves y viernes el 4-5 noviembre
Escribes 6-8 frases de tu horario y tus clases. También hablas a la clase. Describes una clase en particular. Tienes que incluir (to include) toda la información aquí:
- ¿Cuántas (how many) clases tienes?
- ¿En qué hora tienes la clase de que hablas? y ¿qué clase es?
- ¿Quién enseña la clase?
- ¿Cómo es el profesor/la profesora? (2 adjectivos)
- ¿Cómo es la clase? (2 adjectivos)
- ¿Qué necesitas para la clase? (por lo menos 3 cosas)
- ¿Qué haces en la clase? (2 actividades, verbos conjugados)
- ¿Te gusta la clase o no?
10 puntos para la presentación oral (la pronuciación es importante!)
10 puntos para la parte escrita (written)
10 puntos para escuchar a los otros estudiantes (escribir de ellos)
Unas palabras: alto/a = tall, bajo/a = short, rubio/a = blond, ruidoso/a = loud. loco/a = crazy, fabuloso/a = fabulous, joven = young, viejo/a = old

11/1 - Mi horario, review of -ar verbs

1. Esponja - -ar verbs
2. Write out your schedule in grid form.
3. Q&A over schedules.
4. Study groups - pen pal letters

La tarea: turn in final version of pen pal letter tomorrow.

Extra credit was due today, but only 1 student turned it in. Sorry folks!

10/29 - Calaveras de azucar

1. Read the second half of Day of the Dead book. This part explained how the holiday is celebrated.
2. Reminder: pen pal letter rough drafts are due on MONDAY.
3. Reminder: extra credit is due on MONDAY.
4. Sugar skulls. Students decorated some great skulls!

La tarea: Extra credit and pen pal letters.

28/10 - Pen pals

1. Esponja - -ar verbs
2. Day of the Dead
3. Pen pals

La tarea: None, unless you are doing the extra credit (see yesterday's entry). Also, remember to bring in craft items.

10/27 - Midterm Exam, gender of nouns, possible extra credit

1. Midterm exam.
2. Worksheet to learn and practice figuring out the gender of nouns. You can find the explanation here.
3. Extra Credit: Students must make a poster showing the rules for determining the gender of a noun as explained on the link above. This may NOT be a word for word copy of the explanation, and it may not be a blown up version of that page. It must be a condensation of the information into an easily understandable, short, informative synopsis.

La tarea: finish pyramid puzzle.

10/26 - Review for Midterm exam TOMORROW

1. Complete review for midterm:

Oral portion: letters (text p12), numbers (text p7), conversational questions (presented aloud) and answers (written)
Written portion: time (text p8), pronouns (p82), "ser" conjugated forms (p158), more conversational Q&A
Essay portion: 6-8 sentence essay.

Following are the questions you should be able to answer to do your best on the midterm.
1. ¿Cómo estás?
2. ¿Cómo eres? (chapter 1B, also p70)
3. ¿Cómo te llamas?
4. ¿Cuál es tu color favorito?
5. ¿Qué hora es? (text p8)
6. ¿Qué día es hoy? (text p14-16)
7. ¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy? (text p14-16)
8. ¿Qué tiempo hace hoy? (text p18)
9. ¿Qué te gusta hacer? (chapter 1A, also p.46)
10. ¿Qué no te gusta nada hacer? (p36)
11. ¿Qué te gusta hacer los fines de semana?
12. ¿De dónde eres?
13. ¿Cuántos años tienes?
14. ¿Cómo se llama tu mejor amigo/a? (p70)
15. ¿Cómo es tu mejor amigo/a? (p70)
16. ¿Qué le gusta hacer tu mejor amigo/a? (p70)
17. ¿Qué no le gusta nada hacer tu mejor amigo? (p70)
18. ¿De dónde es tu mejor amigo/a?

10/25 - ABC Oral, review for midterm

1. Esponja - La llorona
2. ABC Orals - students had to say the alphabet to a grader, then come to me to double check any incorrect letters and spell a word. Most did very well!
3. Pronoun review

La tarea: Write out the numbers from 1-100 in words in Spanish!!

Midterm topics:
ABC
Numbers
Time
Basic questions and answers
Pronouns
"Ser"
short essay describing self and a friend.

10/22 - -ar verbs, game to practice verb conjugation and letters, ORAL on Monday

1. Check tarea
2. Esponja
3. Share verb conjugations
4. Text p. 84-86, do several activities aloud
5. Game: in groups of 2 or 3, we did verb conjugation and spelling.

La tarea: Study the alphabet!!!! On Monday, each student will have to say the alphabet for me, AND they will have to spell on of the following 5-letter words aloud (picked at random):

Practice spelling these 5 letter words:
pinta
extra
cieno
golfo
chaqué
morral
zanca
porrón
sobre
hindú

’ the accent mark is called “asento”, and you say if after the letter it goes on, “oh acento” = ó

10/21 - -ar verbs!

1. La tarea, check and go over
2. Esponja - -ar verb hunt
3. Learn how to conjugate an -ar verb. We chanted the endings over and over and over again. Then we saw how they fit into the conjugation grid and how to use them with an infinitive to make a conjugated verb.
4. Conjugation practice
5. Conjugation game

La tarea: WB p36

10/20 - Quiz, ser practice

1. Practice quizzes for vocab quiz
2. Quiz
3. Ser practice, race along rows.
4. Workbook pp. 32-33

La tarea: Workbook pp.32-33

10/19 - vocab, subject pronouns QUIZ TOMORROW

1. Esponja
2. Check homework
3. Q&A using new vocab (p.96)
4. Read and understand pp. 74-75
5. Discuss vocab list.
6. Make practice quiz using 20 vocab words.

La tarea: Study for vocab quiz!!

10/18 - "ser" and subject pronouns

1. Esponja - class vocab
2. el verbo ser. We repeated the conjugated forms in order many, many times and in different ways: soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son.
3. I showed how these fit into a conjugation grid.
4. The uses of "ser". There are 2 verbs in Spanish that mean "to be". Ser is used to things that are relatively permanent. The teachers at Heritage like to use the memorization technique of TOPPNIC to remember used of ser.
Time
Origin
Profession
Possession
Nationality
Inherent Characteristic

We discussed how all those uses are relatively permanent, hard or impossible to change.
5. Subject pronouns. Then we discussed the use of subject pronouns. This seemed easy for most students (yay!). When talking ABOUT someone, you use the first or third person (not Ud.) - yo, el, ella, nosotros, ellos, ellas. When talking TO someone, you use a form of YOU - tu, usted, vosotros, ustedes.
6. Text p.82 and 83, we read explanation and did activities aloud.

La tarea: Workbook pp 31 and 35.

10/13 - Art day

1. Last few oral presentations
2. Go over test
3. Craft day: color, cut out, decorate a skull for Day of the Dead.

La tarea: Great work on the chapter test, NO HOMEWORK!

10/12 - TEST, start chapter 2A

1. test
2. vocab practice orally from chapter 2A (p.96)

La tarea: Bring in art supplies for tomorrow: glitter glue, yarn, sequins, pom poms.

10/11 - test review, TEST TOMORROW

1. Craft on Weds - we will be decorating a Day of the Dead skull picture. If you want, bring markers, glitter glue, yarn, sequins, beads, pom poms or other items to decorate your art.
2. Oral presentations/pass off
3. Go over workbook pp24-27
4. The verb "ser" Put it into your 6 box conjugation grid:
1st person sing: yo soy
2nd person sing: tú eres
3rd person sing: el/ella/Ud. Es
1st person plural: nosotros somos
2nd person plural: vosotros sois
3rd person plural: ellos/ellas/Uds. son

5. Team game to practice for test.

La tarea: Study for the test. Ser will be extra credit!

10/8 - dialog with subtitles, cootie catchers, TEST TUESDAY

1. Check tarea
2. Test on Tuesday!!
3. Read aloud dialog that kids translated yesterday.
4. Make fortune tellers/cootie catchers. Just for fun! Students wrote fortunes in Spanish.

La tarea: do any missing work!!

10/7 - sub day,

Sorry to miss you guys today, I am sick. I'll be back tomorrow and I WILL check all this work.

1. Chapter test on Tuesday, all missing work due on Monday
2. Translate the entire “play” on pages 52-53. Write out all the lines under pictures 1-8 in English.
3. Do activities 2 and 3 on p. 53 on the same paper
4. Workbook pages 26-27

10/6 - oral presentations

1. Esponja - describing famouse people
2. Pass off
3. Oral presentations. Everyone had to read their personal poem aloud and the class had to take notes.

La tarea: none!

10/5 - pass off, adejctive word order

1. Esponja "Esta bien ser diferente"
2. Pass off
3. Textbook: read and understand pp 51-52, word order rules p. 62, Act 19.
4. Workbook: p. 28 together.

La tarea: practice for oral presentation tomorrow. Workbook pp 24-25

10/4 - pass off, adjective word order

1. Conjugation grid passoff
2. Esponja "Quinceanera" book and discussion.
3. Poems: pass back. Announce ORAL presentation on Wednesday. Students will read their poem for the class. They must pronounce well, so if there are any words you are unsure about, go to the online textbook and hear pronunciations, or ask Sra. Phipps.
4. Adjective poll: Students wrote a question on their white boards to ask other students. Then they went around asking and answering.
5. White board practice of noun and adjective word order. In Spanish, the words go in the opposite order from English. For example, in english we say, "the intelligent girl" but in Spanish "La chica inteligente".
6. Also practiced definite and indefinite articles. Definite: el/la = the, indefinite: un/una = a

La tarea: none!!

10/1 - vocab quiz, project

1. Vocab and conjugation grid quiz. Vocab scores will be in the gradebook soon. Conjugation grid is a pass-off item. You have to be totally perfect to pass off; students will be tested on the grid every day until they pass. 3 students passed off today, but many were close and will hopefully make it on Monday.
2. Do Personal Poem. The assignment is listed below.

La tarea: finish poem, study conjugation grid.

Poema personal: (17 points)

Fill in the blanks with appropriate words. Type or neatly write the poem. Illustrate with at least 3 neat pictures that indicate things in your poem.
Grading rubric:
Poem itself 10 points ( 1 point per line)
On time: 2 points
Neatness: 2 points
Illustrations: 3 points

Me llamo _____________.
Tengo _____________ años.
Soy de _____________, _____________.
A veces, soy _____________.
También soy _____________ y _____________.
Según mis padres, soy _____________.
Según mis amigos, soy _____________.
No soy ni _____________ ni _____________.
Soy muy _____________
¡Yo soy yo!

9/30 - adjectives, conjugation grid

1. check and go over homework
2. Present the conjugation grid. Students must memorize and be prepared to make this exact grid on the quiz tomorrow:

Draw two long lines across your page, and one line down that crosses the middle of both lines. This creates a 6 block grid. The left column is labeled "singular" and the right is "plural." The top line is labeled "1st person" the next line is "2nd person" and below the seond line is "3rd person."

Fill the boxes as follows:
Ist person singular: yo (I)
2nd person singular: tú (you, informal)
3rd person singular: él (he), ella (she), Ud. (you formal)
1st person plural: nosotros (we, all boys or mixed), nosotras (we, all girls)
2nd person plural: vosotros/vosotras (you-all informal) (Spain)
3rd person pllura: ellos (they, all boys or mixed), ellas (they, all girls), Uds. (you-all formal)

2. We practiced talking about people. Each student had to introduce their best friends and describe them with one adjective.

3. Then we described ourselves according to other people, "Según mi mamá, yo soy ______________."


La tarea: Study vocab and conjugation grid for quiz tomorrow!!!!!

9/29 - vocab practice

1. Write sentences about yourself using all adjectives.
2. Practice answering questions using new vocab.
3. Text p54, act 5 and 6, p55, act 7

Tarea: Workbook .22-23

9/28 - Test! Start new chapter

1. Test
2. Vocab practice, p. 70 in text. We used new adjectives to answer questions about ourselves and others.

La tarea: Write a sentence for each adjective saying "Yo soy ____________" or "Yo no soy _____________" Remember to make the adjective agree with theh noun it is describing, so girls need to use a feminine form of the adjective.

9/27 - Test TOMORROW! Review day, cognates

1. Learn what cognates are. See p34-35 in textbook. Basically, they are words that are very similar in Spanish and English. For example, the word "guitarra" is a cognate. Students did a reading on p.35 and found as many cognates as possible. Cognates WILL be on the test tomorrow.

2. Test review: Make sure you also know about infinitives. Infinitives are unconjugated verbs, verbs that end in -ar, -er, or -ir. There are three types of verbs, the aforementioned -ar, -er, and -ir types.

3. Students had a make-up day. Students finished their pen pal letters and turned them in. If they were missing any owrk from this chapter, they were given a notice and allowed to do the work today in-class. Also students missing a quiz made it up.

4. Students with no makeup work did workbook pages 20-21 as review for the test.

La tarea: Study for the test!!!!!!

9/24 - review, pen pal letters

1. Review homework.
2. Pen pal letters: I distributed a letter to each student. Student who were absent will get an assignment on Monday. Students had to read their letters, then I asked them questions in Spanish about their pen pals.
3. Students composed a response based on what they have already learned, what they picked up in the letters, and some other expressions I gave them in class. They did a rough draft, then asked another student to look at it, then prepared the final version.

La tarea: If a student did not turn in their final letter, they should get it ready to turn in on Monday.

9/23 - Quiz, negatives

1. Vocab quiz - English to Spanish
2. Listening activities
3. Negatives, text p.36, do activities 15, 16, 17 out loud.
4. Talk about pen pals

La tarea: Workbook pp 18-19

9/22 - vocab practice, me gusta

1. Esponja, finish "Mayeros"
2. Check tarea, go over
3. Oral practice with expressions of agreement and disagreement, "A mi tambien" "A mi tampoco" "Pues, a mi me gusta" and "Pues, a mi no me gusta".
4. Verb practice with flachcards, study verbs with flipside of workbook

La tarea: Study for vocab quiz tomorrow, English to Spanish.

9/21 - Vocab work, infinitives

1. Esponja - "Mayeros"
2. Flashcards practice. We did various activities to use the flashcards and learn the vocab. Some included traditional flashcard use, removing known items from array, pointing to items, playing memory game, individual identifications.
3. I explained that these verbs are "Infinitives" - verbs that are not conjugated. That means that noone is doing the action, it is just a verb all by itself. There are 3 kinds of verbs in Spanish, ones that end in -ar, -er, and -ir. We sorted the vocab cards several different ways, then did an activity out of the book to practice both vocab and verb types.

La tarea: Workbook pp. 16-17. Bring flashcards again

9/20 - verbos, me gusta

1. Esponja "Erandi's Braids"
2. Vocab quiz - Spanish to English
3. Video that goes along with the text pp. 28-29, then we did a couple of activities aloud to go along with the video/reading.
4. Talk about the use of “A mi” and “A tí” to emphasize who we are talking about. “Me gusta nadar” “A mi no me gusta” (I like to swim. I don’t like it.)

La tarea: Make up a set of flashcards for the 21 verbs we have been working with. Write Spanish on one side, and draw a picture on the other side. Bring them to class tomorrow!!!!!!

9/17 - Vocab practice, more ways to use me gusta

1. Esponja, "Juan Bobo Goes To Work" a Puerto Rican folk tale
2. Tarea
3. We learned how to say that we don't like either of two choices. Students got to practice saying "No me gusta ni _______ ni _______."
4. In text, we read through pages 26-27. We did activities 1-2, then on p. 30, we did activity 5, and then with partners, students did activity 8.
5. Bonus: Since I forgot to do it with my 5th period Spanish 2 class today and I had the forms, students got to do NFL picks. The team names were all in Spanish and students got to guess which team would win for each matchup. We will check them on Tuesday.

La tarea: Study the 21 verbs in the first section of the vocab list on p. 46. We will have a Spanish to English Vocab quiz on Monday.

9/16 - 16 de septiembre, me gusta

1. For out esponja activity today, we learned about 16 de septiembre, Mexican Independence Day, which is today. It is the bicentennial of Mexican independence this year.

2. We added to our knowledge of "me gusta" by learning that to answer a question with yes, you say "Si" and then the rest of the phrase (Si, me gusta practicar deportse). To answer no, you need 2 nos. First say "No" to mean no, then say another "no" to mean not. (No, no me gusta jugar videojuegos.)

3. Then we added the phrases mucho and nada to make "me gusta mucho" (I like it a lot) and "no me gusta nada" (I don't like it at all).

4. Students did a poll of the class, asking if they liked different activities and marking down if they like it a lot, like it, don't like it, or don't like it at all. We discussed results.

La tarea: Workbook pages 13 and 15.

9/15 - Examen, and Me Gusta!

1. Para Empezar chapter test
2. We got acquainted with the new vocabulary and the phrase “me gusta” which means I like. Each student had to say an activity they like, they had to ask each other what they don’t like (and answer), had to say which they liked more of two or three choices of activities.

La tarea: Write a sentence for each of the 21 verbs in the first section of the vocab list on p.46 saying whether you like or don’t like it.

9/14 - Test review!!

1. Esponja
2. Flipside of workbook - wo worked our way through the first 10 pages or so of review material for the test.
3. Review game: Students were assigned teams of 2, 3, or 4 students and had to answer questions, some directly from the test, some just suggested by the exam. The winning team got candy. All teams should be well-prepared for tomorrow's test.

La tarea: Work through the flipside of the workbook through the weather vocab.

9/13 - Oral exams, workbook pages

1. Check tarea
2. Oral exams. Students are called up to the teacher and choose 5 random cards, each of which has one of their questions on it. Students have to answer in complete sentences.
2. Work in your workbook, on the flipside. Do flipside pages 1-21 (skip the letter pages). This is GREAT practice for the test on Wednesday, and will help with oral exams.

La tarea: If you have not done your oral, practice for tomorrow. Start studying for the chapter test on Weds. ALL MISSING WORK DUE TOMORROW!!

9/10 - Weather, important questions, oral exam on Monday

1. Esponjas
2. Go over tarea
3. Hand back and go over quizzes
4. Weather vocab: flipside of workbook, pages 19-20, 21.
5. Text: p. 19-20 Read about season in Southern Hemisphere, practice using weather vocab.
6. ORAL EXAM ON MONDAY! Be prepared to answer 5 random questions from this list:
1. ¿Cómo se escribe tu nombre en español? (spell you spanish class name in spanish)
2. ¿Cómo te llamas?
3. ¿Cómo estás?
4. ¿Cuántos años tienes?
5. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?
6. ¿Cuál es la fecha hoy?
7. ¿Qué día es hoy?
8. ¿Qué quiere decir “la espalda”?
9. ¿Cómo se dice “the face” en español?
10. ¿Qué tiempo hace hoy?
11. ¿Qué hora es?

You will not know which questions you will get until you are taking the exam, so prepare for all 11!!!

La tarea: Workbook p10 (crossword puzzle), prepare for oral exam.

9/9 - Weather vocab

1. Workbook p. 9 ¿Qué tiempo hace?
2. Divide a paper in 4 boxes. Label each box with a season, write the months for each season. Then draw and label all weather that applies for that season.
3. Other side of workbook: do page 19, weather flashcards

La tarea: finish these activities, if not already done.

9/8 - Body parts quiz, conversation quiz

1. Esponja, explanation of esponja grade from last week.
2. Prueba 1 - fill in the blank conversational vocab.
3. Prueba 2 - las partes del cuerpo. Students must label at least 12 body parts on Homer Simpson.
4. Text pp 18-19. Repeat weather vocab, do first two activities aloud.

La tarea: None!

9/7 - Review

1. Esponja/check and go over homework
2. In textbooks, read p10 and do activities on p11 with partners.
3. Review of the difference between ¿Cómo está Ud.? and ¿Cómo estás? The first one is formal and used with adults and people to whom you want to show respect. The second is informal and used with friends, family, and people younger than you.
4. Birthday "bingo" Students prepared a sheet with all twelve months listed in Spanish. Then they had to circulate through the class asking ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? and answering Mi cumpleaños es el (#) de (month). They tried to find someone with a birthday for each month, the first to do so won.

La tarea: STUDY for the body parts quiz. Students will be given a drawing of a person and they will have to label at least 12 body parts. There will be no word bank, so make sure you know your vocab!!!

9/3 - Body, colors

1. Esponja - list body parts from top to bottom
2. Practice English to Spanish body parts.
3. Learn colors:
blanco = white
negro = black
gris = grey
rojo = red
verde = green
azul = blue
amarillo = yellow
anaranjado = orange
morado/violeta = purple
marron/cafe = brown
rosado = pink
4. In workbook (opposite side from usual), we colored people, practicing colors and body parts.

La tarea: Workbook p. 5, color by number sheet. Study body parts for quiz on Tuesday.

9/2 - Body parts practice, time

1. Esponja/check and go over homework
1.5 Q&A Each student had to answer a basic question.
2. Review body parts. Play "Muestrame" (Show me) a Simon Says game where noone gets to be out.
3. Matamoscas (Fly swatter) game. All the body part names were written on the board. The class was split into two teams and a member of each would have to run up and swat the correct translation of the word I called out.
4. Time practice: still using the fly swatters, students would have to run to the board and swat the correct time with one hand, and AM or PM with the other. This was particularly funny, kind of like Twister.

La tarea: Check infinite campus to see what work you are missing and catch up on the work!!

9/1 - Masculine vs. feminine nouns, body parts

1. Esponja, check homework.
2. Discussion of masuline and feminine nouns. In Spanish, all nouns have a gender. There are general rules as to what makes a word masculine or feminine, but they have many exceptions. Masculine words take the article "el" to mean "the", feminine ones take "la" to mean "the."In general, words that end in "o" are masculine, and ones that end in "a" are feminine. We have only learned one exception to this rule so far, la mano. It is important to memorize the article together with the noun, so never practice "libro", always practice "el libro."
This discussion is also in the text on page 11.

3. Students had to draw a person and label all 18 body parts from our list.

La tarea: finish your drawing if necessary.

8/31 - First Esponjas, quiz, new vocab, study strategies

1. I introduced the concept of "esponjas" "sponges". These are short activities that I will post on the projector at the beginning of each class. Students will get their folders from the box in class, do the activity, we will discuss, and then return the folders to the box. I will grade esponjas once a week for participation grades.

1.5 Check and go over homework from yesterday.

2. Students got a few minutes to review for the quiz. Then we took the quiz.

3. We added new vocabulary to their lists. In an effort to teach them good methods for studying vocabulary, I am requiring students to do one of two methods to work on this list. They either may make flashcards, or they can make a 4-column vocab list. For the 4-column list, they must fold their paper into 4 columns, then copy the Spanish vocab into the first column and the English translations into the second. Then fold over the columns so you are looking at the Spanish on the left, and a blank column on the right. Try to fill in the English, then unfold and check. Finally, fold over the paper so you are looking at the English and a blank column. Fill in the Spanish, unfold and check. Eash student must bring a set of flashcards or a filled 4-column list tomorrow.

The words are as follow:
la cabeza = the head
la cara = the face
el ojo = the eye
la nariz = the nose
la oreja = the ear
la boca = the mouth
el pelo = the hair
el hombro = the shoulder
el brazo = the arm
la mano = the hand
el dedo = the finger
el codo = the elbow
el estómago = the stomach
la espalda = the back
el pecho = the chest
la pierna = the leg
la rodilla = the knee
el pie = the foot

La tarea: flashcards or vocab list, study words.

8/30 - Review of days, dates, etc. Quiz tomorrow

1. Review days of the week
2. Review months of the year.
3. Answer these 5 questions:
?Que hora es?
?Que dia es hoy?
?Cual es la fecha?
?Cuantos anos tienes?
?Cuando es tu cumpleanos?

These 5 questions will be on the quiz tomorrow!!

4. We did a listening activity to review greetings.
5. Quiz tomorrow: 5 questions, numbers, time.

La tarea: Study for quiz, Workbook pp. 6 and 8.

8/27 - "Aztec calendar" and vocab

1. Finish Aztec calendars.
2. Fill out vocab sheet; I will check it on Monday!

La tarea: Finish calendar and vocab sheet. Start sutdying for quiz on Tuesday over numbers and time, days dates and months.

8/26 - Review of time, number, classroom activties, days and months

1. Time relay
2. We read Act 6 on page 5 and answered the questions.
3. We read page 6, which reviewed classroom commands.
4. On page 7 in the text, we did activity 8 out loud.
5. On page 8, we did activity 11 aloud.
6. We reviewed the days of the week and months of the year.
7. Finally, we started an art project. Students will be making their own version of an Aztec calendar. I gave them some circles with directions of what information to fill in on each circle. Students MUST create a heiroglyph for each day, month, and season, so a total of 23 glyphs.

La tarea: None, but bring in your Aztec calendar to work on tomorrow.

8/25 - number practice, time, days and months

1. Check/go over homework

2. We practiced telling time. Remember, for 1:00 only, you say "Es la una" for all other hours, you say "Son las _____"
y media = and a half hour
y cuarto = and a quarter hour
menos = minus, use when it's close to the next hour. For example, at 4:45, you say that it's 5 minus a cuarter "Son las cinco menos cuarto." The question for telling time is "¿Qué hora es?"

3. We learned days of the week and sang a song to practice. The days are
lunes = Monday
martes = Tuesday
miércoles = Wednesday
jueves = Thursday
viernes = Friday
sábado = Saturday
domingo = Sunday

The days and months are not capitalized in Spanish.

The song is to the tune of The Addams Family song:
La semana (snap snap)
La semana (snap snap)
La semana, la semana, la semana (snap snap)
El lunes y el martes
miércoles y jueves
viernes y sábado
domingo
la semana (snap snap) we usually kind of stop there.

The months are:
enero, febrero, marzo, abril, mayo, junio, julio, agosto, septiembre, octubre, noviembre, diciembre

To say a date, say "el(number) de (month)" for example, el veinticinco de agosto.

La tarea: page 7 in the workbook.

8/24 - Retake of quiz, textbooks, telling time

1. Check/go over homework

2 Retake spelling quiz. Scores will be posted later tonight; only the higher score will count.

3. Textbook checkout: students were given the choice of checking out a hard-copy textbook to keep at home, signing up for the online textbook, or both. Students who so wished were given the explanation for signing up online. Those who took a paper textbook filled out book cards and they may keep the book at home for the year; I will have a classroom set of books for use in class.

4. Telling time. We learned how to tell time in Spanish and did some activities using little foam or wood clocks. They did a worksheet about telling time and we went over it.

La tarea: workbook p. 3-4

8/23 - turn in supplies, ABC quiz, textbooks and workbooks

1. While students were preparing for the quiz, I checked supplies. All grades are entered in the gradebook with a note if you are missing anything.

2. Quiz. There were 5 perfect scores. The other 28 students will retake the quiz tomorrow and the better score will stand.

3. Textbooks. We read the first 4 pages of the textbook and did a few activities aloud.

La tarea (the homework): Workbook pp. 1-2. Write name on workbook. Also, study for retake and get missing supplies!!

8/20 - Oral presentations, ABC review, number review

1. Students turned in supplies. Remember, all items are due on MONDAY: dry erase markers, folder with brads loaded with paper, binder with 3 dividers labeled "Vocabulario" "Gramatica" and "Tarea", and the signed parent contact form.

2. Oral presentations. Everyone did great!

3. ABC and number practice on the white boards. We will have an ABC quiz on Monday.

La tarea: study for quiz.

19/8 - letters, greetings, introductions

1. WE learned how to introduce someone else:
Él se llama _________ (His name is)
Ella se llama ___________ (Her name is)
Students had to introduce their rows.

2. We chanted the alphabet several times, then they had to identify letters and spelling of words.

3. Oral presentation for tomorrow. Students have to present a dialog with a partner. They must include the following:
Greet each other
Ask how each other is (one asks, the other answer, then the other asks back and the one answers)
Ask each others' names (both must ask and answer)
Say some form of Nice to meet you
Say goodbye.

Students must memorize and present tomorrow in class.

La tarea: memorize and practice your dialog. Practice the alphabet.

8/18 - Conversations, numbers, ABCs, Spanish names

1. Bingo time!! Using the board they made yesterday, we played bingo to practice numbers.
2. Alfabeto. We learned the ABCs in Spanish with an emphasis on the evolution of the language and the geographic differences.
3. Choose Spanish names. Students looked at a list of many names and chose one they liked.
4. White board spelling practice, if time.

La tarea: Prepare to be able to spell your Spanish name in Spanish, practice pornouncing A E I O U (ah, eh, ee, oh, oo)

8/17 - Conversations, classroom vocab, #s

1. Review conversations from yesterday. Add in the following phrases:
¡Buenos días! – good morning
¡Buenas tardes! – good afternoon
¡Buenas noches! – good night
Mucho gusto – It’s a pleasure (to meet you)
Encantado(a) – Enchanted (to meet you)
¿y usted? – and you (formal)


We also discussed the upside down punctuation, and the difference between formal and informal forms of address.

2. Classroom vocab - We repeated the “TPR” activity from yesterday, where students had to make actions to show they understood classroom commands.
¡Cállate! – shut up – cover mouth
¡Escucha! – listen – cup ears
¡Mira! – look – point from eyes to board
¡Levántate! – stand up
¡ Siéntate! – sit down

Today we added classroom items:
El libro – the book
El papel – the paper
El lápiz – the pencil
La pluma/el bolígrafo – the pen
La puerta – the door
La pizarra – the blackboard
Abre el libro – open the book
Cierra el libro – close the book

3. Finally, we learned to count from 1-20, then by 10s through 100. Students did various activities to practice counting.

La tarea (the homework): Make and bring a 5x5 bingo board filled in with numbers between 1-100.

Hola

1. Students were taught to say "Hola" and ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?) and ¿Cómo te llamas? (What is your name?) To answer, you say Bien or Muy bien (well or very well), Mal or Muy mal (bad or very bad), or así-así (so so). To ask some one back, say “¿y tú?”

Here is a sample dialog:
¡Hola!
¡Hola!
¿Cómo te llamas?
Me llamo María. ¿y tú?
Me llamo Pedro.
¿Cómo estás?
Muy bien, ¿y tú?
Mal.
¡Adiós!
¡Hasta luego!

Homework: Start gathering your supplies for class!!

¡Bienvenidos a la clase de la Sra. Phipps!

¡Bienvenidos a la clase de la Sra. Phipps!

If you found this blog before class started, on the first day of class, bring in a note card or small sheet of paper that says your name, class period, and write “¡Me gusta mucho el blog!” (that means I really like the blog). Hand the card to me when you come in. If you do so, I will return the card to you the next day with candy attached!

This offer is good on Monday, August 16th ONLY!